One conventional converged Ethernet network arrangement supports transmission of different classes of network traffic in the network. For example, two such classes may be low latency traffic and bulk traffic, respectively. The ratio of low latency traffic to bulk traffic intended to be carried by the network may be preset, for example, to a ratio of 80 percent bulk traffic to 20 percent low latency traffic. The transmission of low latency traffic may be distributed in time, with the transmission of a respective low latency frame occurring after the transmission of a respective bulk frame.
In this conventional arrangement, each frame usually traverses multiple hops before arriving at its ultimate destination. At each such hop, the transmission of a received low latency frame is queued (and thereby, delayed) until a transmission slot, after the transmission of a bulk frame, becomes available. Statistically, this queuing delay, at each respective hop, for a respective low latency frame can be shown to be equal to about half of the time involved in transmitting an average sized bulk frame. This can significantly delay the reception of a given low latency frame at the intended ultimate recipient. Further exacerbating this problem is the fact that most bulk frames consist of jumbo frames that can be much larger than a given low latency frame.
Additionally, if it is desired not to drop frames in the network, and the network implements flow control techniques to pause frame transmission, then each hop in the network should be allocated sufficient buffer memory to store, under the worst expected latency conditions, incoming frames, until its corresponding link partner receives and carries out the command to enter the paused state. The above issues increase the amount of latency that may be expected in this conventional arrangement, and therefore, also increase the amount of buffer memory to be allocated in this conventional arrangement. Unfortunately, since these considerations are concerned with addressing potential worst case latency conditions, and such conditions are unlikely often to occur, most of time the majority of this buffer memory actually will be empty (e.g., not actively used to store incoming frames). This is wasteful of memory resources.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.